Overcoming No-See-Ums

“Only the moon's smile can cure the unseen scars of darkness.” ― Munia Khan

It has been several days since I have been able to write. My week was filled with work at our company's annual customer convention called EMCWorld in Las Vegas, Nevada. A place for over 10,000 people to get together and learn about the latest trends and products in data storage. Afterwards, I took a few days and traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah.

A chance to view one of nature's great treasures.

Just outside of Salt Lake City is a lake called the Great Salt Lake. It is the western hemisphere's largest salt water lake and fourth largest in the world covering anywhere from 1,000 to 3,300 square miles depending upon the time of year and water levels.

For my visit the weather was cooperative and a few of us traveled out to Antelope Island State Park which sits in the middle of this vast lake. Antelope Island is the largest of ten islands located within the Great Salt Lake and home to abundant wildlife and various promontory spots to hike and capture breath taking views.

Capturing the beauty nature has to offer.

A group of us walked up Buffalo Point to capture these views and as we reached the peak the wind calmed and swarms of hatching Ceratopogonidae flies, otherwise known as "No-see-ums" found us in great numbers. Not often am I distracted from the views but these flies were doing their very best to keep me from enjoying this time.

Very quickly I took some pictures, one of which you see above. What you do not see are the flies swarming all around me and many in our group starting their descent in a very quick manner. These flies are so small you simply can not see them, thus the name "no-see-ums".

Descending the rocky path, we were harassed by these unseen foes.

Many times in life we are attacked by unseen detractors in life. These are the people trying to ruin your life experience. Many times we allow them to destroy our joy of all that is good around us. The detractors come at us with their negative attitudes, trying to pull us down from our joy. These detractors could also be those circumstances in life which try to defeat us on our journey towards something great.

The unseen forces in life will try to knock us off balance but we each have the ability to succeed in spite of their ways. We can still see the beauty which surrounds us while fighting off their bites or words of discouragement. There is so much for us to enjoy in life that we must not allow ourselves to be distracted.

Overcome the "no-see-ums" in your life.

Keep your focus on the beauty which exists all around you. And stay inspired my friends!